Soil

[Tw1]

Looking over the Chang'e 3, I realised something is missing from Kerbal. Regolith!

All planets have the same, concrete like surface. Imagine if the Mun had a little layer of dust, that kerbals could sink ankle-deep into.

Most worlds would have something like this.

Icy/crystally moons would stand out more in the absence of dust.

I don't even know if this is possible with the unity engine, or if it would have prohibitive RAM usage. But it would be cool to see someday along with dust clouds, all all that.

Thoughts? Is it possible? What do you think?

Edited December 15, 2013 by Tw1

[TimMartland]

Yes, Yes and Yes! It would be cool to leave rover tracks and footprints behind you too!

[FlamingPotatoes]

interesting idea, but it would have to be made in the same way as craters when your ship crashes and squad said that would by a hopeless task

[MC.STEEL]

it would be totaly awesome to land on laythe and view as the evian dust gets picked up by the winds.

but i dont think kerbals would sink in the dust but they will someday leave footsteps.

BTW; this is for the times of beta when they are finished with base for the game

[Tw1]

interesting idea, but it would have to be made in the same way as craters when your ship crashes and squad said that would by a hopeless task

Not sure about that, wouldn't that just be small, flat objects that get placed over the surface?

What I'm thinking for soil, is a semi-permeable layer, that could be added as another layer to the planet, or as something that relates to ground angle. Dust doesn't tend to collect on cliffs.

Particle effects would represent dust getting kicked up.

but i dont think kerbals would sink in the dust but they will someday leave footsteps.

Depends on the nature of the dust, really. Not just kerbals, maybe landing legs could sink in in certain places.

[Tex_NL]

Wheel dust must belong to the realm of possibilities. We already have various particle effects in the game and 0.23 will bring even more freedom in that aspect. Setting what kind of dust and how much might be possible to define similarly to biomes.

Persistent trails/footprints have been talked about before. If I understood correctly it is possible but does demand a good deal of CPU resources to either place objects or edit textures realtime.

[TMS]

Harv addressed the issue of footprints and tyre tracks on one of the kerbalcon broadcasts.

Basically... cool, wanna do it, not sure when.

[tetryds]

Wheel dust must belong to the realm of possibilities. We already have various particle effects in the game and 0.23 will bring even more freedom in that aspect. Setting what kind of dust and how much might be possible to define similarly to biomes.

Persistent trails/footprints have been talked about before. If I understood correctly it is possible but does demand a good deal of CPU resources to either place objects or edit textures realtime.

I don't belive footprints can be that resource intensive.

It's just the same semi-transparent footprint copyed and applied to the already existing surface.

It can disapear on atmospheric planets and remain forever at non-atmo ones.

Most of race cars have very complex tire marks for each kind of wheel, and they just disapear for scenery sake, but my fps never dropped during a drift.

Dust too, there are very optimized ways to do it without affecting performance.

I belive both of these will come when the game is near done, and SQUAD starts to focus on optimization and visuals.

Not sure about terrain types affecting landers and wheels, i guess that could be attached to the biomes.

[Tw1]

Dust too, there are very optimized ways to do it without affecting performance.

True, footprints, tracks, shouldn't be that complex.But not sure about actual dust that things could sink into/get buried under, that could be more tricky.

Edited December 15, 2013 by Tw1

[astropapi1]

Footprints and rover tracks could be (probably) made in the same way bullet holes are marked on walls in FPS games.

Edited December 15, 2013 by astropapi1

[jwenting]

would be awesome, would also be a massive drain on memory and the physics engine, especially if it needs to be persistent so when you come back to the site later those tracks and foot prints are still there (but of course weathered by atmospheric conditions and/or micro meteorite impact).

[ngianoplus]

I dug this out of the depths of my hdd because I love you guys

If I recall correctly this was from a Reddit post... Actually I searched it for you http://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/18ji1k/

Search for the word "Maaayybee" (It will take you straight to his post)

And for the picture:

Note: This was not an in-game test, so don't get too excited

Also, we lost so much since Novasilisko "left"

[ngianoplus]

would be awesome, would also be a massive drain on memory and the physics engine, especially if it needs to be persistent so when you come back to the site later those tracks and foot prints are still there (but of course weathered by atmospheric conditions and/or micro meteorite impact).

If we could compromise... have the tracks fade out after ~50 meters like with smoke trails.

[LethalDose]

If we could compromise... have the tracks fade out after ~50 meters like with smoke trails.

That would be an awesome way to implement this!!!

[jwenting]

If we could compromise... have the tracks fade out after ~50 meters like with smoke trails.

would mean they're not persistent of course, makes little sense as the main reason for footprints and blast craters from taking off for home is to see them coming back later

[ngianoplus]

would mean they're not persistent of course, makes little sense as the main reason for footprints and blast craters from taking off for home is to see them coming back later

I know it wouldn't be the greatest compromise, but it would work, no? I don't care too much about having them be persistent, but I get your point.

[Drunkrobot]

For your cognitive-stimulation and entertainment, I give you birds-eye images of the Apollo Landing Sites.

Apollo 11

Apollo 12

Apollo 14

Apollo 15

Apollo 16

Apollo 17

Just to show what footprints would look like.